On 10/31/15 22:54, Charlie Pridham wrote:
"Frank Booth" wrote in message
...

First of all you can't just drop your old hard drive with system into
a new
computer and think it will boot up from that. It won't do simply because
your new machine will use different drivers, require different registry
settings etc Your system backup is only good for your old machine.

I thought the drivers would be on the hard drive not in the BIOS?

The problem is that 'device driver' hasn't meant anything coherent since
the 1970s. Yes, most of the code to drive the devices will be on the
hard disk, but it will access specific BIOS and sometimes hardware
features and most of the very low-level control is at that level. With
Linux, you would stand a better chance, but it's not guaranteed.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Jeff Layman wrote:
On 01/11/15 08:25, Robert Harvey wrote:
Charlie Pridham
! But Vista runs my Label station printer software
which neither newer version does without modification, i.e. I can run the
printer on newer software but that means redoing 3,500 individual plant
labels.

Sounds like a case for a virtual machine

I wondered about that, but remember it is a special program with a
connection to an unusual printer. Under VM. would the Vista printer
drivers work and be able to access the printer port?

Yes. I use VMware at work to do exactly that. And the ethernet. And the
RS232.

"Frank Booth" wrote in message
...

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...
My main machine is playing up, I have ordered a new one but want to
extract
as much old data from the old one as I can. Its a PC running Vista

I have a full back up on an external hard drive. I do not have Vista on
disk
its in a partition on the hard drive. I also have a year old mirror copy
of
my hard drive but that also is a USB type connection

I am doing this on the machine as it appears in some respects to be
working
normally, but if I connect anything with memory to any of the USB or card
slots it fails to find it and if I open "Computer" and click on any of
the
external slots it shuts down and reboots so I cant do any further back
ups.

I had thought that as the hard drive was still working I could just drop
it
into the new machine but I am now suspecting its the Windows coding that
is
corrupted and I cant restore my back up because it wont read the USB
slots
and "System Restore" doesn't work.

First of all you can't just drop your old hard drive with system into a
new
computer and think it will boot up from that. It won't do simply because
your new machine will use different drivers, require different registry
settings etc Your system backup is only good for your old machine. You
can
add it to your new machine as a second drive and otshould read all the
files
on it, but you won't be able to boot from it without doing a re-install on
it and altering the boot file on your new drive.

As far as your old machine goes any backup of data can be transferred to
any
machine.So first remove all external memory (cards, drives) reboot your
computer, then stick a flash drive into a USB port (at the back) and see
whether your computer can see that.

I have done it with a cloned hard disc in a similar computer without
problem, although I had to buy a copy of Macrium to do so. It wouldn't work
with the free one.


--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

"Jeff Layman" wrote


Not at all perverse - in my opinion Win8 and Win10 are to be avoided. I
won't be downgrading my half-dead Win7 laptop to Win10 anyway. As it
happens, I do everything under Linux now.

I'm surprised that you will have to redo the labels. Can't the manufacturer
of the program/ printer help out with any conversion necessary? Anyway,
redoing 3500 labels shouldn't tax you too much. When I visited Roseland
House earlier this year you seemed to have all the time in the world,
Charlie. ;-)


Must say I love Win 10, have it now on my originally Win 7 PC and on my
originally Win 8 tablet. Personally I think it's the best OS Microsoft has
brought out, combines the best of 7 with the best of 8.1.
I had no problems at all changing my Dell PC, everything worked, including
the HP printer, immediately but then I had waited for the instruction to
tell me it was available. The tablet, which I forced to update, I had
serious problems with and eventually did a clean install of Win 10 which has
left it working better than ever.

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...

"Frank Booth" wrote in message
...

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...
My main machine is playing up, I have ordered a new one but want to
extract
as much old data from the old one as I can. Its a PC running Vista

I have a full back up on an external hard drive. I do not have Vista on
disk
its in a partition on the hard drive. I also have a year old mirror
copy
of
my hard drive but that also is a USB type connection

I am doing this on the machine as it appears in some respects to be
working
normally, but if I connect anything with memory to any of the USB or
card
slots it fails to find it and if I open "Computer" and click on any of
the
external slots it shuts down and reboots so I cant do any further back
ups.

I had thought that as the hard drive was still working I could just
drop
it
into the new machine but I am now suspecting its the Windows coding
that
is
corrupted and I cant restore my back up because it wont read the USB
slots
and "System Restore" doesn't work.

First of all you can't just drop your old hard drive with system into a
new
computer and think it will boot up from that. It won't do simply because
your new machine will use different drivers, require different registry
settings etc Your system backup is only good for your old machine. You
can
add it to your new machine as a second drive and otshould read all the
files
on it, but you won't be able to boot from it without doing a re-install
on
it and altering the boot file on your new drive.

As far as your old machine goes any backup of data can be transferred to
any
machine.So first remove all external memory (cards, drives) reboot your
computer, then stick a flash drive into a USB port (at the back) and see
whether your computer can see that.



No it can't see any USB sticks.

I thought the drivers would be on the hard drive not in the BIOS?

The drivers are software files on your hard drive. I never mentioned the
BIOS. It's possible you have a motherboard failure as your system should
certainly recognise a flashdrive. It could also be a driver problem whereby
Windows generic drivers that recognise PNP USB peripheral devicess have
somehow become corrupted . Before worrying about mobo failure, look up under
the Device Manager (it's under System in the Control Panel),. Look up
'Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Open up the branch and see whether there
are any question marks or warning signs against the USB Host controllers or
USB hub devices. .

On 31/10/2015 22:50, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 31/10/15 10:48, Nick Maclaren wrote:
On 10/31/15 10:22, Charlie Pridham wrote:


I guess it might be possible to take out the hard drive and put it in
a powered external case with a USB connector, and use another PC to
try to read the disk contents and get anything of value off.

I have made a note of the other suggestions.

I do have an external hard drive caddy and yes my lap top reads all the
files fine

Do you have two PCs and a network? If so then share the drive on the
failing machine and use the oteher to copy everything of value onto
another physical drive. I worry that your main PC might have picked up
some malware so running a deep virus scan and malwarebytes might be
worth a punt. Otherwise it is quite possible that MS registry has
screwed up USB mass storage drivers somehow.

I have tried my own recovery disk which boots the machine up but it
still wont do a system restore (although I may try again)

As others have said booting off a live Unix or dedicated AV disk and see
if that can access mass storage USB devices will tell you if it is
hardware or software. Given that it seemed to arise after physically
moving things the suspicion is on hardware but never make assumptions!

I expect it may seem perverse to want a machine to run on Vista, which
although I much prefer it to windows 8 or 10 I would I know get used to
the latest version eventually! But Vista runs my Label station printer
software which neither newer version does without modification, i.e. I
can run the printer on newer software but that means redoing 3,500
individual plant labels.

I can see that would be a real PITA.


--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 31/10/2015 22:54, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Frank Booth" wrote in message

As far as your old machine goes any backup of data can be transferred
to any
machine.So first remove all external memory (cards, drives) reboot your
computer, then stick a flash drive into a USB port (at the back) and see
whether your computer can see that.

No it can't see any USB sticks.

I thought the drivers would be on the hard drive not in the BIOS?

They are but they are the drivers for that *particular* motherboard and
graphics card. If you transplant it without warning into another
hardware environment you will be very lucky if it boots at all.

What you would have to do is create a new bootable partition on a new
machine and reinstall Vista from your original CD/DVD and transplant the
activation code from the original machine I think the free version of
Recover Keys will be good enough for this although you might need the
paid for version.

The other option is to put the drive into an external drive caddy or
simply share it on a network and copy the important data off it.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

This is just to say thank you for all the helpful suggestions, very
difficult to work out whats wrong when you cant see for yourself, so I am
very gratefull for them time given.

While following some of the suggestions I noticed that the machine would
only reboot if everything was removed from USB and card slots, so I wondered
if with everything removed it would do a "System Restore" it did! and all
the USB ports are now working again although the graphics are all different.
When the new windows 7 machine turns up I shall be a lot more proactive
about backing the system up (and checking it works)


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On 04/11/2015 16:38, Charlie Pridham wrote:
This is just to say thank you for all the helpful suggestions, very
difficult to work out whats wrong when you cant see for yourself, so I
am very gratefull for them time given.

While following some of the suggestions I noticed that the machine would
only reboot if everything was removed from USB and card slots, so I
wondered if with everything removed it would do a "System Restore" it
did! and all the USB ports are now working again although the graphics
are all different. When the new windows 7 machine turns up I shall be a
lot more proactive about backing the system up (and checking it works)

Depending on the BIOS settings you may have enabled boot from USB drive
or other removable sD media. This can be very confusing if the media
lacks a boot sector (or worse is a vector for hostile malware).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
On 04/11/2015 16:38, Charlie Pridham wrote:
This is just to say thank you for all the helpful suggestions, very
difficult to work out whats wrong when you cant see for yourself, so I
am very gratefull for them time given.

While following some of the suggestions I noticed that the machine would
only reboot if everything was removed from USB and card slots, so I
wondered if with everything removed it would do a "System Restore" it
did! and all the USB ports are now working again although the graphics
are all different. When the new windows 7 machine turns up I shall be a
lot more proactive about backing the system up (and checking it works)

Depending on the BIOS settings you may have enabled boot from USB drive or
other removable sD media. This can be very confusing if the media lacks a
boot sector (or worse is a vector for hostile malware).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

I will check, but I had not been fiddling with the BIOS (honest!)

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On 06/11/2015 09:00, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
On 04/11/2015 16:38, Charlie Pridham wrote:
This is just to say thank you for all the helpful suggestions, very
difficult to work out whats wrong when you cant see for yourself, so I
am very gratefull for them time given.

While following some of the suggestions I noticed that the machine would
only reboot if everything was removed from USB and card slots, so I
wondered if with everything removed it would do a "System Restore" it
did! and all the USB ports are now working again although the graphics
are all different. When the new windows 7 machine turns up I shall be a
lot more proactive about backing the system up (and checking it works)

Depending on the BIOS settings you may have enabled boot from USB
drive or other removable sD media. This can be very confusing if the
media lacks a boot sector (or worse is a vector for hostile malware).

I will check, but I had not been fiddling with the BIOS (honest!)

Quite a few have a default setting of boot from removable media if it is
present at start up. This will stop a PC in its tracks if there is an sD
of CF card in a slot and it is enabled for booting.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown